Chinua Achebe
I have been an admirer of Chinua Achebe's novels since I first read Things Fall Apart more than 40 years ago.I assigned his novels Man of the People and Anthills of the Savannah when teaching comparative politics. I recommend his book of essays, Home and Exile to everyone who asks about a non-Western perspective on relations between Nigeria and the "first world."
Several of my students and I did get to hear him speak once after reading and discussing Man of the People. Rarely have students responded so enthusiastically to being prodded to travel across the city on a Thursday evening. It was an inspirational experience for all of us.
Ed Pilkington of The Guardian (UK) interviewed Achebe recently in his home along the Hudson River in New York. If you only know his books, this is a great introduction to the man. If you don't yet know his books, accept this introduction as an invitation to read some of them.
A long way from home
"By rights I should be talking to Chinua Achebe in Ogidi, his home town in Nigeria. He should be telling me about his efforts as chairman of the village council to build schools, improve the water and bring health to the people. We should be talking about whether and when the rains will come, and how the yam harvest is doing this year.
"Instead, we are sitting in a bungalow on the banks of the Hudson, upriver from New York, surrounded by clapboard houses, rolling green hills and cows chewing the cud. The nearest restaurants have names such as Rose's Kitchen, Pat's Place and Hickory. As I arrive, Achebe is sitting at his desk at the window overlooking a gravel front drive.
"It seems a strange place to find the writer credited above all others with inventing the modern African novel...
"Published in 1958, Things Fall Apart turned the west's perception of Africa on its head...
"Things Fall Apart has sold more than 10m copies and has been translated into 50 languages. More importantly, it spawned a whole generation of African writers who emulated its linguistic ingenuity and political vision...
"In A Man of the People (1966) and Anthills of the Savannah (1987) he tears into the greed, egomania, lust and laziness of post-independence African rulers, giving us a chronicle of Nigeria's descent into the autocratic rule under which it still labours today. In those books, and in a stream of non-fiction essays, he has been a consistent irritant to the powerful..."
At the end of the article are links to web pages about his recent Man Booker International prize, a blog entry by Helon Habila titled "Getting to Know Chinua Achebe," and a blog entry by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie titled, "The exemplary chronicler of an African tragedy."
See also:
- Chinua Achebe
- Internet Public Library on Achebe
- Chinua Achebe from the University of Bremen (Germany)
posted by Ken Wedding @ 5:21 PM
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